While yesterday was day 1 for this little guy, today was the first day of real training. Yesterday we had 2 workouts and a little walk to refresh what he already knows. Mostly we spent yesterday getting him settled in and comfortable. He has been very quiet in his kennel and eating well. Being agitated in the kennel and having a lack of appetite are usually the first two signs of kennel stress I see, so I am very glad to see how well he is settling in. One big adventure Wally had yesterday was meeting Hoadie, the donkey. This little guy must be a city slicker because he froze with eyes the size of dinner plates when Hoadie started following us down the fence line. We stopped for a minute or two just to look at Hoadie and fully take him in.
Today we started training in earnest and he did very well. His heel/auto sit is spectacular (thanks to the hard work the owners put in before the B&T) and his recall is alright. He always comes right to me but he only sits properly around 30% of the time. The rest of the time he takes a flying leap into my legs. His Down-at-the-side is another item he is only around 30% accurate on. He has gone down with no help or correction 3 times, but the other times he seems genuinely confused. We are going to start over at the beginning with this tomorrow like we did today and see where we get. I am pretty sure we will still be encouraging him along on the Down for another day or two.
Tomorrow we are going to learn "Place mat" which will soon mean bringing him into the house for some household distractions in the shape of other dogs, people, and food. We are also going to start work on the "motion" commands where I give a Sit or Down (it will be Sit tomorrow) command while I am moving past him instead of stopping next to him.
He is doing very well on the Dogtra IQ and has only needed a very low level stimulation nick for correction when he gets a little too excited. So far he has been a trooper and has become a fast friend to Kylie the Akita who always enjoys playing with the little guys.
Today we started training in earnest and he did very well. His heel/auto sit is spectacular (thanks to the hard work the owners put in before the B&T) and his recall is alright. He always comes right to me but he only sits properly around 30% of the time. The rest of the time he takes a flying leap into my legs. His Down-at-the-side is another item he is only around 30% accurate on. He has gone down with no help or correction 3 times, but the other times he seems genuinely confused. We are going to start over at the beginning with this tomorrow like we did today and see where we get. I am pretty sure we will still be encouraging him along on the Down for another day or two.
Tomorrow we are going to learn "Place mat" which will soon mean bringing him into the house for some household distractions in the shape of other dogs, people, and food. We are also going to start work on the "motion" commands where I give a Sit or Down (it will be Sit tomorrow) command while I am moving past him instead of stopping next to him.
He is doing very well on the Dogtra IQ and has only needed a very low level stimulation nick for correction when he gets a little too excited. So far he has been a trooper and has become a fast friend to Kylie the Akita who always enjoys playing with the little guys.
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